teamakers for CBC prez

by Hugh

I’m a public radio addict, and I theoretically love CBC Radio, except that most of it is total shit. Some of it is fantastic. (By the way, this is why I started Collectik.net, so that instead of listening to crappy radio punctuated with the occasional great show, I could listen to the stuff I want to listen to all the time).

Anyway, it seems CBC needs a new president. There’s a great blog written by a pseudonymous CBCer, mostly about the CBC, called teamakers. “Ouimet” is the writer, and s/he is snarky, tough, and sometimes unfair, but generally has his/her head screwed on as straight as they come about CBC.

Anyway, s/he’s thrown his/her hat into the ring for prez, by sending an email to the selection committee (or at least pretending to) with nice paras such as:

Our current President is a bureaucrat, by his own admission. This means that he spends a lot of time kissing the asses of politicians, trying to get more money for the CBC. He’s turned his back on his employees. Between you and me, I don’t think he’s too keen on the Canadian public either.

But you and I both know that all of this didn’t get us one single dollar. We’re left with a President no politician respects, the employees hate, and we’re still broke.

and:

As for remuneration, I have no idea what the job pays but to show you I’m serious, I’ll take half of it. The other half we’ll use to bring on as many contract workers as we can, full time permanent.

Considering that Stephen Harper appoints the prez, chances are things are going to get a hell of a lot worse around the ceeb.

(PS as I write this I am listening to the dismal Afghanada, a radio drama about Canada’s “grunts on the ground” in Afghanistan … if there is anything worse than CBC writers and actors pretending to be “grunts” by dropping g’s from their Havergal & UCC accents, I don’t know what it would be).

Afghanada is a great show! I make sure to listen to it each week!
I’m a long time fan of old time radio plays. I love the stories and characters Afghanada has each week. Here’s hoping they bring a season 3 to the airwaves!

i don’t have a problem with radio plays in general, but i have a problem with this one. it strikes me as a totally phony, completely dishonest piece of art – badly written, badly acted. and the cloying hagiographic tone of it all smacks of the worst kind of public broadcasting kowtow … “Lefty CBC proves to Canada’s New Government that they support the *heck* out of our Troops” …

In any case, I don’t have a problem with the subject matter – life in Afghanistan for Canada’s military – it’s just that this show to my ears doesn’t sound *anything* close to an honest portrait of life in Afghanistan.

It’s funny, I had totally written it off as well, but lately i’ve been talking to people who feel like it’s a really interesting program and arguing in its favor.

Maybe it has improved over time, so people who tried it near the beginning were turned off but now it’s matured so people are picking it up fresh… Or maybe we can all agree to dissagree and watch the Strombo-Hour together.

i heard it today and it was even worse than i remember it. it’s basically a bunch of upper-middle class actors trying to sound like lower-middle class soldiers by dropping their gs and saying “friggin'” a lot, and it just ends up sounding exactly like you would imagine if the CBC tried to make a radio play about the army.